Summary

After months of delays that had made science lobbyists anxious, House and Senate spending committees this week were expected to approve hefty increases in biomedical research funding for the fiscal year that starts today. The increases for the National Institutes of Health (NIH)--$2 billion, or 13%, in the Senate and $1.1 billion, or 8.5%, in the House--would far exceed the White House's 2000 request for the $15.6 billion agency and sustain the biomedical community's drive to double the agency's budget by 2004. It may take at least another month, however, for Congress and the White House to agree on the exact size of NIH's raise, as Republicans and Democrats engage in last-minute budget negotiations.